dwz8
August 1st 2006, 16:47
Every year in spring, we have the blossoming of trees and flowers, and with that comes a lot of pollination (I hope this is the right word). In fall then, leaves are falling and of course, we collect them with our cars.
This spring there was a tremendous amount of pollination here in Germany. This, and leaves left over from last fall have created a damage that potentially could have been avoided. Hence this thread.
First a rough sketch of the radiators:
http://www.dwz8.de/z8cooling/radiator.jpg
We are looking at the car from the front. First, you see the condenser of the air condition, then the cooling coil of the power steering, and finally the radiator.
Apparently, the air reachest the engine radiator at the very end.
Between the two radiators, there is a small gap needed for the cooling coil of the power steering.
In my car, this gap had filled up partially with leaves from last fall, and even more with pollen and dirt such that the radiator had lost more than a third of its cooling surface:
http://www.dwz8.de/z8cooling/dirtyrad.jpg
It is difficult to see on the photo, however, the little spaces in the radiator were partially filled up completely:
http://www.dwz8.de/z8cooling/rad.jpg
Even this reduction in cooling surface should not result in severe problems for a stock engine, in my case a couple of extreme conditions came together, leading to an overheating of the engine:
- hot temperatures
- laps on the Ring with strong acceleration
- small distance to the car in front of me (see video)
- one third less of cooling surface
The temperature indicator is dampened a lot around the middle position, hence it only roughly tells you about the actual temperatures. Once it starts moving to the right, it will hit the red area almost instantly. This makes it a bit difficult to react appropriately, especially, because I wasn't prepare for the consequences.
Summary:
At least once a year this gap and/or the radiator should be checked, if you have driven under similar conditions, to avoid cooling issues of this kind.
This spring there was a tremendous amount of pollination here in Germany. This, and leaves left over from last fall have created a damage that potentially could have been avoided. Hence this thread.
First a rough sketch of the radiators:
http://www.dwz8.de/z8cooling/radiator.jpg
We are looking at the car from the front. First, you see the condenser of the air condition, then the cooling coil of the power steering, and finally the radiator.
Apparently, the air reachest the engine radiator at the very end.
Between the two radiators, there is a small gap needed for the cooling coil of the power steering.
In my car, this gap had filled up partially with leaves from last fall, and even more with pollen and dirt such that the radiator had lost more than a third of its cooling surface:
http://www.dwz8.de/z8cooling/dirtyrad.jpg
It is difficult to see on the photo, however, the little spaces in the radiator were partially filled up completely:
http://www.dwz8.de/z8cooling/rad.jpg
Even this reduction in cooling surface should not result in severe problems for a stock engine, in my case a couple of extreme conditions came together, leading to an overheating of the engine:
- hot temperatures
- laps on the Ring with strong acceleration
- small distance to the car in front of me (see video)
- one third less of cooling surface
The temperature indicator is dampened a lot around the middle position, hence it only roughly tells you about the actual temperatures. Once it starts moving to the right, it will hit the red area almost instantly. This makes it a bit difficult to react appropriately, especially, because I wasn't prepare for the consequences.
Summary:
At least once a year this gap and/or the radiator should be checked, if you have driven under similar conditions, to avoid cooling issues of this kind.